‘Agents of SHIELD’ Season 4 episode 12, “Hot Potato Soup,” was all twists and turns, and we learned a lot of answers around every corner, including a big reveal about the Koenig family. Lots of spoilers for the episode ahead.
Holy shit, The Koenig’s aren't LMDs? Turns out SHIELD Agents Eric, Billy and Sam have another twin brother, Thurstan, who’s an obnoxious comedian. They also have an utterly badass sister, Agent LT Koenig, and none of them are robots after all. They are real, living quadruplets.
So they aren’t LMDs, but they are most certainly connected to them. In fact, they were technicians on SHIELD’s very first LMD project. Yes, there was a project before Dr. Radcliffe invented AIDA, but it wasn’t a successful one.
So after Agent Coulson got the Darkhold back, he gave it to the Koenig brothers to hide, who then played “Hot Potato Soup” with it, eventually stashing it in a library only Billy knows how to find.
Radcliffe, still searching for the Darkhold book, seeks help from Senator Nadeer’s “Superior,” who we now know as Anton Ivanov, played by Zack McGowan. Long story short, Billy is kidnapped by Radcliffe, AIDA and Ivanov. They use AIDA to read Billy’s mind and find the location to the Darkhold. Then, we find out what Ivanov’s plan really is: to destroy inhumans and the man that created them.
"Every time something strange happens in the world, it is there. I believe it is responsible for all of the alien problems on this planet: the Chitauri, Kree, Inhumans, ” Ivanov tells Radcliffe.
Ivanov believes inhumans don’t deserve their powers and that humans are the superior race. Using the Darkhold, Ivanov plans to make inhumans extinct. He specifically names Agent Coulson as the man, or “it”, responsible for inhumans and aliens coming to Earth, pulling out pictures from Coulson in the Marvel Cinematic universe, Thor specifically (more on that here). That’s when Radcliffe confirms to Ivanov that Coulson didn’t die back on May 4, 2012 like the obituary states.
Meanwhile, Fitz has figured out how to shut down one of Radcliffe’s LMD and learns May is an LMD as well. Unfortunately, he’s too late. May and Coulson have already shared their first kiss. But it didn’t end well. May snatches the Darkhold and points a gun at Coulson as Dr. Radcliffe walks in. He takes the Darkhold from May’s hands and leavers her on the floor to die.
Even though the Darkhold is in Ivanov and Radcliffe’s possession, SHIELD is still in a better place to get the Darkhold back and end the LMD reign. The team has already shut down three of them: the first AIDA, the Radcliffe LMD, and the May LMD. They’ve also identified the mysterious “Superior,” Ivanov, who is working with Nadeer as the leader of the Watchdogs.
So now that we know the true history of LMDs and SHIELD, all there is left to do is get May back, acquire the Darkhold, and end Radcliffe and Ivanov once and for all. Do you think Coulson could be more involved with alien appearances than he’s letting on? Let us know in the comments below.
